Resource Centre Reports
20 September 2007
The law of the land: Amnesty International Canada’s position on the conflict over logging at Grassy Narrows
This briefing paper is informed by a research mission to Grassy Narrows in April 2007 that involved representatives of Amnesty International Canada and the global movement of Amnesty International, as well as independent experts on Indigenous rights issues. The people of the Asubpeeshoseewagong Netum Anishinaabek (Grassy Narrows First Nation) in northwestern Ontario have said no to industrial development in their traditional territory. For more than a decade, the Band Council, individual trappers and others in the community have written to the federal and provincial governments and to the forestry companies operating in their territory to denounce clear-cut logging as incompatible with traditional ways of life. Canadian courts have affirmed that any decisions with the potential to impact on the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples require the involvement of the affected people. In every instance, there is a minimum legal duty to carry out prior consultation with the sincere intent of accommodating Indigenous concerns. In releasing these preliminary findings, Amnesty International Canada is renewing its call for the Government of Ontario to respect the moratorium declared by the people of Grassy Narrows and to halt all clearcut logging and other industrial development in the traditional territory until free, prior and informed consent has been given.
The law of the land: Amnesty International Canada’s position on the conflict over logging at Grassy Narrows.